Independent Workers Union of Great Britain – Universities of London Branch

Dear Lord Winston, Chairman of the Council of the Royal College of Music,

I am writing you in my capacity as President of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), the trade union which represents the cleaners at the Royal College of Music It has come to my attention that you will be participating in that college’s graduation ceremony tomorrow.

You should be informed that the college currently has exploitative working conditions for its cleaners. In particular the cleaners receive no occupational sick pay, have only the statutory minimum amount of holidays, and receive minimal employer contributions for their pensions. This means that they are often constrained to work while sick, have difficulty going to their home countries to visit family, and have an insecure future. For more information on the current campaign for better terms and conditions, see https://royalcollegemusic3cosascampaign.wordpress.com/.

You should also be informed that in furtherance of this campaign we are staging a protest tomorrow at the College during the graduation ceremony. We are expecting a good turnout, complete with drums, vivuzuelas, chanting, and placards.

Finally, it is important for you to know that the reason we are staging the protest is because the Royal College of Music has refused to engage with the workers, their demands, and their union. We have offered to negotiate with the College- either directly or via ACAS- and the College has adamantly refused. We have even offered to suspend tomorrow’s protest in exchange for meaningful negotiations with an offer on improved terms and conditions in sight. This request was met with silence.

In sum, and on behalf of the Royal College of Music cleaners, I would request that you use your considerable influence with the Royal College of Music management to encourage them to do the right thing make an offer on decent terms and conditions for the people who spend their nights cleaning the College.

Thank you very much for you attention on this matter.

Kind regards,

Dr. Jason Moyer-Lee

President

IWGB

Dear Professor Lawson,

I am writing you, once again, about the terms and conditions of your outsourced workers. As you know, we are particularly concerned with their sick pay, holidays, and pensions entitlements.

As you will be aware, we have a protest planned for this Friday as part of the Royal College of Music 3 Cosas Campaign for decent sick pay, holidays, and pensions. As you will also be aware, the protest will occur during the RCM graduation ceremony. This means that the ceremony will include loud vivuzuelas, drums, banners, placards, and hundreds of leaflets to be delivered to RCM students and their families. If activity on social media is anything to go by, this protest looks like it is shaping up to be considerably larger than the last one.
The IWGB is staging this protest not because it has any particular desire to interrupt a graduation ceremony for students and their loved ones- quite to the contrary. The protest is being held because the current situation on terms and conditions is simply untenable. The lack of occupational sick pay forces your cleaners to work while sick or injured. The lack of decent holidays restricts their ability to go home and visit their family and loved ones. And the measly pensions on offer to them don’t allow them to look forward to a decent retirement. Indeed, some of your cleaners have children who they would also like to see go to university and graduate- yet the financial hardship that your stingy terms and conditions causes makes that goal all the more difficult for them.

Neither the IWGB nor your workers are unreasonable. We have always been- and continue to be- open to negotiation and dialogue, either directly or via ACAS. It is the Royal College of Music that has obstinately refused to engage, preferring instead to liaise with another trade union which has no members among cleaning staff.

In sum, we are writing to extend yet another offer of invitation to meaningful negotiations over terms and conditions. If the RCM chooses to engage, and has a decent offer on improved terms and conditions within sight, we are prepared to suspend Friday’s protest. However, if the RCM refuses to engage with its workers and the IWGB, then the protest will go ahead and we will publicise the fact that the RCM has preferred to allow the interruption of its students’ graduation ceremony rather than sit down and enter into dialogue with its own workers and their chosen trade union.

Thank you very much in advance for your consideration of this matter.

Kind regards

Jason Moyer-Lee

President

IWGB

Please come to our fundraising party on Saturday 18 July at SOAS!

All members, friends and family welcome – free entrance for all.

There will be bingo, a raffle, a full bar, Latin American food, and dancing!

4pm – 11.30pm, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Contact uol@iwgb.org.uk for more information.

Just a quick update to say that there’s a slight change to this month’s branch meeting schedule – we’ve shifted the Saturday meeting back to the 25 July to accommodate the bingo dance extravaganza on the 18th…

New dates are:

• Friday 17 July, 12.30pm (room S13, Institute of Education)
• Friday 17 July, 3.30pm (IWGB Office, 80 Lamb’s Conduit Street)
• Saturday 25 July, 2pm (IWGB Office, 80 Lamb’s Conduit Street)

As ever – come along! We’ve got loads to talk about – Aramark, Cosector (the UoL’s Bond-baddie-sounding new shared services plan), the library, our new English-Spanish exchange AND what looks like a stunning victory in the CAC case versus the University!

Following on from the IWGB’s leafleting campaign to get Aramark to get rid of the zero hours contracts its employees at the University of London are on, Aramark has contacted employees to make an offer of new contracts.

In letters sent to members of staff, Aramark give their employees a choice to either remain on their current ‘flexible’ contracts or to opt in to a contract with the following terms:

• The contract is over 42 weeks, excluding the summer and Christmas periods
• Employees would be obliged to work a minimum of 16 hours per week or 64 hours every four weeks during the 42 week period

This essentially means that workers would be guaranteed no more than an average of 16 hours of work per week and are not guaranteed work at all during the summer or Christmas periods.

The IWGB is calling on its members to reject these contracts and we have written to Aramark to explain that the offer is unacceptable as well as stepping up our campaign.

Aramark’s attitude towards its employees is probably best illustrated in the sign below, which was posted on the staff noticeboard.

Following on from our last post outlining the proposed changes to SAUL, we have an update on the situation.

UNISON and Unite have now approved the proposed changes to SAUL.

This means that the next stage is for SAUL to consult with all members of the scheme, and this consultation is due to start in mid-July.

Once the consultation begins, the SAUL website will have a calculator put up once the consultation starts which people will be able to enter their personal details in to see the changes for them.

As before the IWGB recommends that all members respond to the scheme by rejecting the changes. At our last branch meeting people asked for alternatives, and we would suggest:

• there is an increase in the employers’ contribution, but only to 16%. They pay 18% into the USS pension scheme, so why can’t they do the same for SAUL?
• the employers took a ‘pensions holiday’ in the 1990s – they could pay into the scheme the money they saved then
• SAUL are taking a very subjective view of the scheme as requiring urgent change – the extent to which it is in ‘deficit’ depends on the way this is calculated, and they are using the calculation most amenable to their argument. They should reassess the actual long-term affordability of the scheme before rushing into abolishing the final salary element

If you have any questions, please get in touch at uol@iwgb.org.uk.

The UoL branch of the IWGB was represented at the massive Anti-Austerity march in London on Saturday 20th June.

Between 70-150,000 people are estimated to have turned out for the march, protesting against the Tory austerity government which continues to allow the most vulnerable to suffer from cuts to public services and prevents ordinary hard working people from being able to make a decent living.

Full coverage of the march can be found here.